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Monday, January 30, 2012

This weekend was so much fun! We really are so blessed to live where we live, to have the most amazing friends and family and a truly faithful God. Here are some of our weekend highlights...We ran 8 miles with some of Team Henryand then enjoyed a post run meal together, one of my favorite things is to have a full table of people I love....

only 1 week left!

Ben finished the design for the race t-shirt

We got to Skype with Vivienne, who is doing great in China... AND I got these sweet photos from a friend who is at Shepherd's Field.

There are not words for how cute they are...I can't wait to get them home.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Its officially been one week of Vivienne gone. And I haven't died from not being able to ask a thousand questions at the end of every day yet.

The Lord is good...all the time.

He is showing me so many things about myself, about my marriage and about my mothering:) He is also working in Vivienne's life as well as she has to adjust without a parent to guide and about where to turn in times of loneliness.

Week one down and I know He has only scratched the surface of the lessons and the blessings. I seriously can not wait for the end of week six. Not only to see my sweet Viv again but to look back at this six weeks and marvel at our God.

This is the only photo I've received so far, but aren't they super cute? She promised me more would be coming soon:)

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Vivienne left today to spend six weeks in China to intern in the clinic of Shepherd's Field Children's Village. She will assist the doctors on staff with special needs orphan's as well as a plethora of other things while she is there.

When she asked if she could go, there were three conditions:

#1 She had to get a job and pay for the trip herself.

#2 She had to get approval from her doctors that she was healthy enough.

#3 She had to work it out with her teachers.

Honestly, I didn't think she would pull it off when I agreed to it. What 16 year old could? But here we are 6 months later and she gone.

She was such a stud as she was searched and her luggage was double scanned during security because of the excessive amount of coffee she was smuggling to Jamie. She was icy calm as she stood in line and her dad gave her every instruction that he could think of for the "just in case" scenarios. She was confident and cool and Karla and I gave her long goodbye hugs in front of the masses of people. She smiled a little smile as she got onto the escalator and looked down to us one last time on her way to being a grown up.

I am really proud of her...I can't even tell you how proud. She is 16, almost 17 and she is fearless. Talking about her last night someone asked what I was doing at 16, almost 17 and I pointed out that I had a baby. Such an incredible thought but it dawned on me that we are the same, Viv and I, in a lot of ways. At 16, almost 17 there is a confidence based on mostly nothing but strong none the less. There is a need to move on from youth to something more significant and purposeful. Its hard to say that my choice was wrong or destructive because my son changed my life. God used him to remove me from the destructive path I was on and showed me a whole new life in Him. But I'm so glad that Vivienne was smart enough to recognize the opportunity she had and to work hard to achieve it. I'm so glad that the Lord already has a hold of her sweet heart and she was sensitive enough to answer the call. There is nothing more bittersweet then seeing your children grow up, but today I feel anything but sadness. No tears, no anxiety, no fear...just admiration, pride and thankfulness that God raised such a great girl.

We are praying for you Viv, in the middle of the night, in the brightness of the morning, we will pray without ceasing and we are so excited to see what He will do with your precious life.

I Pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.Eph 1:19

Sunday, January 15, 2012

First, we finished our Home Study today so we are done with the paperwork part and on to the US and Chinese Immigration phase. Best case scenario we are looking at bringing Henry home in May...I am praying for that:)

Second, my Sweet Vivienne will be getting on an airplane on Wednesday morning to go to China to intern in the clinic at Shepherd's Field for 6 weeks. To say that I will miss her is an understatement considering I miss her now when she just goes to work! Pray for safe travels, a mind set on Jesus and a completely blessed time.

Third, we are running running running...trying to get ourselves in condition to run 13.1 miles on February 5th at the Surf City Marathon. Charles, Meg and I ran 10 miles today and I have to tell you it was long! We are all finding that our eating habits directly effect how we feel when we run so that is good:) We do have a couple of new team members as of today, I will introduce them and then add them to the "Team Henry" page if you would like to vote for them.

First is Josh Patopoff, he is the father of 3 beautiful girls and one rambunctious boy and he still finds time to run! Most of the time his stats are posted at 11:00pm for his 6 to 8 mile runs so you know this guy is committed. I'm pretty sure he is going to give James a run for his money, we are thrilled he joined our team.

Josh and his temporary running buddy

Second we have Josh Beames, who is one of our all time favorite high schoolers. He is a senior at Beckman High School and ran on their cross country team so he is a shoe in. If you ask him, he will modestly tell you that there is no way he will compete for the win but if my predictions are correct he will likely take the lead early and skate through to the end.

Photo of Josh a couple of years ago

The ipod touch is still up for grabs, for $10 you can vote for the runner you think will have the best time for a chance to win.